It has been noted that the Supreme Court on Monday for a second time took down a request from former Trump adviser Peter Navarro to avoid further prison time over his contempt of Congress conviction via CNN.
It seems that in an emergency request last month, Navarro questioned the Supreme Court to let him remain free while he challenged his conviction at the federal appeals court in Washington, DC. Chief Justice John Roberts rejected that request on March 18, and Navarro reported to prison the following day.
Navarro attempted a procedural maneuver that had not worked in decades. He resubmitted the request to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was Trump’s first high-court nominee, after his emergency application was denied by a single justice.
According to Supreme Court rules, parties whose emergency applications are denied can resubmit their request to another justice. Gorsuch referred the request to the full court, which considered it during its closed-door conference on Friday. However, the court denied the request on Monday without providing any comment.
Navarro’s attorneys initially argued that pausing a lower court’s ruling rejecting his bid to stay out of prison was warranted because he wasn’t a flight risk and was raising substantial legal questions. Navarro argued his appealed would “raise a number of issues on appeal that he contends are likely to result in the reversal of his conviction, or a new trial.”
A couple of lower courts turned down similar appeals. It has been also noted that Roberts rejected the request with a brief opinion last month. The chief justice stated that the federal appeals courts concluded Navarro had forfeited any challenge to the idea that, even if he was entitled to executive privilege, he could avoid appearing before Congress.
Roberts said he saw “no basis to disagree with the determination that Navarro forfeited those arguments.”
Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison following a jury’s finding of him guilty of failing to respond to congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony in the House’s investigation of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
